This is the Ground Observations discussion thread for the 2012-2013 season of the Hornby webcam Eagles!It is a place to post observations, fotos & videos of Mum Dad & their Eaglets, as observed from the ground.

To read all about what happened a year ago today, the Eaglet Hali, & the whole year that followed,

Booni and wren, THANK YOU so much for the pictures! So exciting to see the eagles back and to hear them on the cam!

The pictures have all been teasers for me, I need to see the front view! The way the neck feathers are arranged is very consistently different between Mom and Dad - he has that deep wedge-shaped "split" as seen in the cam photo below.

Same eagle has moved to the Peters' tree. Click on the pictures and notice how you can see the light right through her tail...

October 5, 2:29

2:30

The primaries do not extend right past the end of her tail... But then, that does not show on all Mom's pictures, it seems to depend partly on how she stands.In this second picture, we can see a bit of dried blood on one of her toes.

Around that time, she makes a brief "buck-buck" sound, like Semi did... So who on earth is this?

Look! She's moulted out her first two primaries on each side... That would be why her wing feathers don't stick out past her tail!(She moulted #1 and 4 at this time last year... So she's moulting the first one twice in a row?)

Also, I think she's having a tail moult! Every second feather has dropped off and the replacements are still short (we see two of them). That is why we could see the light through her tail earlier. Click on the picture, then click again, and you can also see the stain on the third toe of her left foot.October 5, 4:56

Better view of her regrowing tail feathers here. We can see the blue of the sky right through the single row of long feathers.4:56